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For Immediate Release
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Reaction to Latest Draft: 'Empty Words Can't Stop the Climate Crisis'

Reacting to a draft Paris climate agreement released on Thursday night, Lucy Cadena, Friends of the Earth International climate justice and energy coordinator, said: "Rich countries have moved the goal posts so far that a just deal in Paris is inconceivable. If this text indicates what will be agreed here, we will be left with a deal that fails humanity."

PARIS

Reacting to a draft Paris climate agreement released on Thursday night, Lucy Cadena, Friends of the Earth International climate justice and energy coordinator, said: "Rich countries have moved the goal posts so far that a just deal in Paris is inconceivable. If this text indicates what will be agreed here, we will be left with a deal that fails humanity."

"This text dismantles the core foundations of the UN climate convention," Cadena continued. "The pillars of a just agreement - ambition and equity - have been completely undermined. After all the warm words of developed countries on a 1.5 degree limit, the new text contains no obligation to stay under this threshold. Shockingly, the text could allow for carbon emissions to continue until 2099."

The draft also leaves the door open to false solutions such as unproven Carbon Capture and Storage techno-fixes and carbon markets.

"Incredibly, references human rights have been stripped from the body of this UN agreement on the very day that people around the world mark Human Rights Day," said Friends of the Earth International climate justice and energy coordinator Sara Shaw.

"Critical issues have been kicked down the road when they should have been addressed with ambition and urgency. Empty words can't stop the climate crisis," she added.

Live reactions to the Paris Climate Summit by @FoEint campaigners are available here: https://storify.com/foeiclimate/reactions-to-cop21-text

Friends of the Earth International is the world's largest grassroots environmental network, uniting 74 national member groups and some 5,000 local activist groups on every continent. With over 2 million members and supporters around the world, FOEI campaigns on today's most urgent environmental and social issues.